Cache la Poudre, Colorado's Only Wild and Scenic River

The name on the signs is French and tells the story directly: cache la poudre means hide the powder. In the eighteen twenties, French trappers caught in a blizzard along this river buried their gunpowder in a cache near its banks to lighten their load and survive the storm. The name stuck, and the river has carried it ever since.

The Poudre originates in Rocky Mountain National Park, flows north through the Roosevelt National Forest, passes through Fort Collins, and joins the South Platte east of Greeley. Congress designated it a National Wild and Scenic River in nineteen eighty-six and established the Cache la Poudre River National Heritage Area in nineteen ninety-six, recognizing both its natural character and its role in the history of Colorado settlement. It remains a rare stretch of the Front Range that moves largely as it always has, unimpounded through its upper canyon.